Following the loss of the Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, the Indian Space Research Organization will press on with more missions, including the Chandrayaan-2 mission to put a rover on the Moon, and a mission to Mars:

What about the plans for a manned moon mission?We have to go step by step. First we will go around the earth, the design for which has been completed. We are now in the process of investing in some advanced R&D for that. We are also planning to set up some of the infrastructure for the training of astronauts. 2015 is our target for realising the manned Earth orbit mission. Beyond that it will take another five to six years for the manned moon mission. For that no programme has been conceived as of now.

So the timeline is quite aggressive, but right now the overall cost structure in India for getting things done with ISRO is a lot lower than the overall cost structure in the United States and getting things done via NASA. India's best growth years are ahead of it, and with economic growth above 7% expected to be the norm for years to come, I don't expect there to be too much pressure on budgetary outlay for technological R&D.

The Chandrayaan-2 mission is targeted for putting a rover on the Moon in 2013, and an orbiter would be sent to Mars for 2015, alongside the first manned orbital flight by 2015. A possible Chandrayaan-3 lunar sample return mission might take place by 2018, which would have to demonstrate orbital docking capabilities. Meanwhile, there would be further manned flights occurring in parallel. A manned circumlunar flight could also take place during that time.

The GSLV Mk-III due for its maiden launch next year will mainly be used for all of these missions, while cutting launch costs in half. However, budgetary allocation has already been announced for development of the Unified Modular Launch vehicle (called ULV or UMLV), which will be similar to the Russian Angara concept. This modular family of rockets seen as the most cost-effective way to cater to all types of payload types, ranging from the low end (2-4 tons to LEO) upto super-heavy (50 tons to LEO). It will be based on semi-cryogenic LOX+kerosene fuel, which is hoped will reduce launch costs another 30%.

RLV (Reusable launch vehicle) is intended to be used for more routine, lighter payloads of only a couple of tons to LEO. The intent is to have a vehicle that will take off and land horizontally like an airplane, traveling hypersonically to and from orbit.

The mission will carry not one but two rovers. There will be a bigger Russian rover and a smaller Indian rover. Both rovers will be landed on the Moon together, but will rove around separately, carrying out separate missions.

Will the RLV be used for humans, with the more expensive heavier launches used for critical space infrastructure parts? It's cheapest to put up a space station in one launch, even if you have 1 tonne launch vehicles that are cheaper, but if a one tonne piece fails once it's on orbit...

If they pull off Avatar on a lower budget than NASA... man, that'll be embarressing.

Will the RLV be used for humans, with the more expensive heavier launches used for critical space infrastructure parts? It's cheapest to put up a space station in one launch, even if you have 1 tonne launch vehicles that are cheaper, but if a one tonne piece fails once it's on orbit...

If they pull off Avatar on a lower budget than NASA... man, that'll be embarressing.

I've asked this very question to others, and more knowledgable people have replied that the RLV would not be scaled up for manned spaceflight - at least not in the near term. It would be used as a reusable unmanned delivery vehicle for lighter payloads of less than 1 tonne, while proving the hypersonic flight regime. This would enable India to penetrate the launch market more aggressively.

The upcoming GSLV-Mk3 would be used for medium payloads of upto 10 tonnes for LEO (4.4 tonnes to GTO), while the mature PSLV system would be used for lower payloads of 1-5 tonnes to LEO (0.5 tonne to GTO)

These systems will be in service while India develops its ULV (Unified Launch Vehicle) family, which like Russia's Angara family will then meet all payload scales, including even manned missions to the Moon planned for the 2020s.

The larger one of the rovers has already been designed, but the 2nd smaller rover is now being added on in the wake of the lunar water finding. Some experiments may be changed in order to focus more on the water. ISRO wants to make use of the available unused payload weight to include more instruments to look for the water, and they may even trade off weight by making the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter smaller.

I wanted to suggest calling them Ursa-1 and Ursa-2 in honor of NASA's now defunct Constellation program. (Unmanned Rover for Selene Surface Analysis)I also think that the smaller rover could include a rectenna in its design as a supplement to its solar panels, so that it could receive microwave-beamed power from the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter. This would enable the rover to function even in the shadowed unlit areas having no direct solar illumination, where it would otherwise not be able to venture into without an RTG.

Actually, since there is no atmospheric attenuation, you wouldn't be restricted to microwaves, but could go for infrared beaming for better power density. An orbital system for beamed power would be useful in facilitating robotic exploration of the shadowed cold areas on the Moon.

Wow, sounds like they want to make another Spirit or Opportunity - isn't that overkill?

Why would you need machine vision, AI, etc, when they're only going to be about 4 light-seconds away, thus only giving 10secs roundtrip lightspeed delay at most? Can't one do regular remote control with 10secs delay? Send a command, wait 10secs for a response, send another command, etc.

Just use laser terrain-mapping, and keep away from any really difficult terrain which might be tough to navigate.What's wrong with that approach?

My understanding is that it's a Russian lunar lander design, made to Indian specifications. Well, since it's a rover mission, they probably don't need much more than a bare-bones vehicle to get the rover down to the surface.

India actually wants to add its own second rover, to do some specific investigation in connection with lunar water. So they plan to cut corners on the rest of the payload to accommodate the second rover.